With a massive US military base in Irag you do control/protect the middle east oil flow

It is about oil.

Gates says its not about oil but about securingprotecting the straits etc. Whats the difference ?

Wasn't Arabia involved in WW1 because of oil.

Lawrence of Arabia ?

Classic film has new look after Sept. 11

"The discovery of oil catapulted the Arab world into the 20th century. But the tribal dynamics illustrated in Lawrence still influence developments in that region, and by extension the rest of the world."

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=6500763

Saudi Arabia was not involved in WW I because of oil. It was peripherally involved in WW I because it was a loosely held part of the crumbling Ottoman Empire (Turkey), and Turkey was an ally of German. So, what Lawrence of Arabia was mostly about was giving the Turks some trouble to the south and thereby forcing them to expend resources that could have been applied in the European theatre.

It could not have been about oil because while oil had already been discovered in Persia (Iran) and Mesopotamia (Iraq), it wasn't until well after WW I that major discoveries were made in Saudi Arabia. For sure, the place hasn't been the same since!